Category: News Article

San Jose CA – GE Nuclear Fuel Processing Facility at The Plant Shopping Center

Atomic Power Equipment Department of the General Electric Company
175 Curtner Avenue which is today “The Plant Shopping Center” How can the state do things like this? Here is the State of California’s Envirostor map of the location https://www.envirostor.dtsc.ca.gov/public/map/?global_id=80001780&zl=16

INDUSTRIAL RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL 2503 RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL PRACTICES FOR THE ATOMIC POWER EQUIPMENT DEPARTMENT GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA 

This site was associated with the GE Vallecitos Nuclear Reactor site which is located near Sunol which is next to the San Antonio Reservoir. Let us hope that the creek does not empty into the water supply! In this map the site is near the middle 84 marker on this map and you can see Little Valley Road to its west.

How could the state of California allow a shopping mall to be built on top of a Uranium processing plant in the middle of the city of San Jose CA?. The site dumped radioactive waste directly into the city’s sewer system according to 1957 standards for disposal of nuclear waste into city sewer systems.

But 1957 standards for radiation exposure are nuclear accidents today. For example, in 1957 the maximum exposure for workers to be 1500 mrem of radiation a week for a person to be safe, that’s 18 full Rems a year. Today 5 REMS is the maximum amount for a nuclear worker a year but for civilians living on the site 0.1 REM or 100 mrems per year is the limit for safety for members of the public, the people of San Jose. 1 REM is 1000 mrems.

When the state says it was made safe, ask them what year and what were the standards back then!

Today’s nuclear radiation exposure levels from the Federal Register

Continue reading “San Jose CA – GE Nuclear Fuel Processing Facility at The Plant Shopping Center” →
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EARTHDAY 2021 PROTEST SAN FRANCISCO video

These are the people I am fighting for to publish the Navy reports on my Treasure Island website and on this Disaster Area website documenting the Navy’s contamination of Hunters Point shipyard by the US Navy’s Radiological Defense Laboratory based at Hunters Point and at Treasure Island, the Navy’s Atomic, Biological and Chemical Warfare Training Center.

And if you want a sample of the Navy’s own sources, of what they dumped and polluted at Hunters Point Shipyard, here is their Health and Safety report from 1960 documenting the exposures by building number and listing the radiological accidents just for 1960
U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory., Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory. (1961). Radiological safety at USNRDL: annual progress report health physics division ; 1 January to 31 December 1960. San Francisco, California: U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory. Note: This text is searchable on that website

GOOGLE – 1400 NORTH SHORELINE BOULEVARD (T10000006049)

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Microsoft Word – Memo_WhiteStripes_sanitary_sewer p 10
Microsoft Word – Memo_WhiteStripes_sanitary_sewer p 11

The project is a redevelopment property within the Teledyne-Spectraphysics (T-S) plume with underlying groundwater probably impacted by the upgradient T-S source properties. The developer plans to construct the building wiht a vapor intrusion mitigation system (VIMS) and water barrier. Indoor air testing will be conducted to verify that the VIMS is working as designed.

Envirostor (State of California)

Geotracker Map

Google Map

POTENTIAL CONTAMINANTS OF CONCERN

DICHLOROETHENE (DCE), TRICHLOROETHYLENE (TCE), VINYL CHLORIDE 

 

The Berkeley Blast – 500 tons of Dynamite that blasted out the glass of San Francisco 8 miles away

“A witness near the California Powder Works reported seeing a huge column of white smoke shoot hundreds of feet into the sky seconds before he was knocked down and rendered senseless for several minutes.”

The disaster in Beirut was only a few days ago.

1869 Alfred Noble patented his invention Dynamite which is a safe method of using Nitroglycerin which had an unfortunate tendency to explode when subjected to a large shock. Dynamite made it relatively safe. The California Powerworks had the patent and started manufacturing Dynamite in Santa Cruz and in San Francisco on or near what became Golden Gate Park. There was another plant called the Hercules plant (Hercules in Greek Lore killed Giants) and so they operated facilities near each other which had a tendency to explode.

Explosions were common in munitions plants and after the second blast in San Francisco on or near Golden Gate Park that blew out the glass from downtown San Francisco to Cliff House, the city fathers decided that instead of replacing the glass in the buildings of San Francisco every time one of these things lit up, they would send the plants to Berkeley across the Bay to what is now Albany California at the Polo Grounds. The plant blew up three times and rebuilt each time until the big blast.

The following is the official record of the incident. Holden, Edward S. “Powder Explosion at West Berkeley, July 9, 1892.” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 4, no. 25 (1892): 187-90. Accessed August 8, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40667068.

“”The Giant Powder Works plant, near West Berkeley, a suburban place on the northeastern coast of the bay, about eight miles from San Francisco, was blown up at nine o’clock A. M. on the ninth of July, and it is believed to be the most extensive explosion of the kind that has ever happened. Being situated on a spit of land projecting out into the bay there was a free course for air disturbance to the city, and other surroundings on the southern and western side of the bay, and windows were crushed for a distance of ten miles where no elevated land intervened.
The air disturbance followed channels where the physical formation permitted horizontal flow, and even streets in the city seemed to have guided the lines of greatest effect. Continue reading “The Berkeley Blast – 500 tons of Dynamite that blasted out the glass of San Francisco 8 miles away” →

Farallon Islands Nuclear Waste sites

The Navy dumped over 47,000 barrels of nuclear waste off the coast of San Francisco near the Farallon Islands. This is a map of their locations. Unfortunately they were supposed to bury it in deep water but it can be found in water 300 meters deep .

John L. Chin and Allan Ota,”Disposal of Dredged Material and Other Waste on the Continental Shelf and Slope” U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia: 2001 Circular 1198 (full-length technical version) p 201

The USS Independence which according to Navy Records was sunk at the approximate location of this map was actually found farther south in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. USS Independence Irradiated in Nuclear Tests found in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
E/V Nautilus explores the Flight Deck of the USS Independence

Most of that 47000 barrels of nuclear waste were stored on the ship when they sunk the Air Craft Carrier. So the amounts sunk in the Farallon Islands must be adjusted.
Continue reading “Farallon Islands Nuclear Waste sites” →

LittleSis Map database showing the interconnections of politicians in SF with land developers

LittleSis Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island Development
LittleSIS is a mapping tool and database that connects politicians and their relatives to their donors and relatives. Handy tool for navigating politics and land development.

“Lennar acquires decommissioned military bases in California.

Nancy Pelosi’s nephew Laurence Pelosi was the manager of acquisitions for Lennar when they were granted the agreements to build on California’s decommissioned  military bases.”

LEGACY OF CONTAMINATION. A California Naval base shutters, and contamination lingers decades later/ Reuters

Article Link
Reuters looks into the nuclear contamination of the EPA Superfund site, Treasure Island which is in San Francisco Bay and it is being developed by contractors with close ties to Bay Area politicians. The City put low income housing on the former barracks and houses on the site. People are getting sick. The Navy and the city are trying to cover this up but kids are finding radioactive materials all over the island.

One girl who became ill had a jewelry box her “Treasure Box” with radium painted dials and radioactive beads. [Editors note: Fallout beads]

Disaster Area Editor:
Why would these be on Treasure Island? Treasure Island was the Navy’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical training school. They are exactly the thing you need to train sailors on how to detect radiation and so they buried these things in the ground for the sailors to find. And that is the only way they could have been dug up by this little girl in her yard or on the playground at her school on Treasure Island.

Most military bases who operated ships and airplanes had radium painted dials and markers used to operate machines, engines etc in no-light situations. When they realized that these markers were radioactive and that they were dangerous, these bases removed them and buried them in the ground, with no care that it might spread the contamination into the water table.

Most EPA superfund sites for military bases have the radium dial markers as one of the things that make it a federal cleanup site. Usually there are others like PCBs (dioxin) and Trichloroethylene (TCE), unexploded ordinance (which is quite common in the Bay Area). You can search for these specific chemicals on the Envirostor website which is the State of California’s Toxic Waste site or on the GeoTracker site which covers California and federal cleanup sites. The Geotracker map shows little squares that indicate a toxic waste location and if you click on them it will show the name of the site.

Treasure Island, in San Francisco CA the Navy’s Atomic, Biological and Chemical (ABC) School Course List

Treasure Island which is being developed for real estate by builders with political connections even though it is an EPA Superfund site for Nuclear Radiation; the city of San Francisco placed public housing on the site in the former barracks of the base. For background on this problem look at this article by Reuters “A California Naval base shutters, and contamination lingers decades later” CONDEMNED: After the Navy closed the Treasure Island base in 1997, San Francisco planned much-needed new housing. Decades later, pollution lingers, leaving new housing a mirage.” REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage.

This is a course list from 1978 of the courses provided on the Island at the US Navy’s Command School and Damage Control School. Note the Atomic, Biological and Chemical (ABC) school was renamed Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) school.

The school built a mockup of a ship USS Pandemonium which they laced with Radioactive Isotopes and the sailors learned to find the radiation and use various techniques to clean the ship by hand and also use fire-fighting hoses to spray the radiation off of the ship and down the drain into the Bay. Also they buried radioactive materials all over the island for the sailors to find.

This most likely explains how a little girl had fallout beads in her treasure box, along with radium dials that were removed from ships which she found digging for “Treasure” on Treasure Island! Fallout varies in size the larger closer into a nuclear blast and when it forms, it becomes a bead or drop shaped piece of glass. The US Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory at Hunters Point Shipyard collected fallout at nuclear tests by specifically collecting this fallout for study by building collectors placed at the Nuclear Test Sites.

The Courses:

Guide to the Evaluation of Educational Experiences in the Armed Services. The 1978 Guide. 3: Coast Guard, Marine Corps, Navy.
American Council on Education, Washington, DC Office on Educational Credit
Department of Defense, Washington, DC 1978

NV-0801-0004 NBC DEFENSE FOR PETTY OFFICERS

Course Number: Not available.
Location: Version I: Damage Control Training Center, Philadelphia, PA.
Version 2: Damage Control School, Treasure Island, CA.
Length: 3 weeks (90 hours).
Exhibit Dates: 5/68-Present.
Objectives: To train personnel to perform as advanced damage-control men strikers.
Instruction: Lectures and practical exercises in nuclear, biological, and chemical defense afloat, including classification, detection, and decontamination of BW /CW agents and nuclear radiation; operation and maintenance of radiac equipment, maintenance of protective clothing and masks; training of personnel in monitoring and decontamination procedures for repair parties; nuclear warfare defense; and NBC warfare defense organization.
Credit Recommendation: No credit because of the military nature of the course (5/74).

NV-0801-0005 NBC WARFARE DEFENSE ASHORE

Course Number: A-7K-011.
Location: Version 1: Army Chemical School, Ft. McClellan, AL. Version 2: Schools Command, Treasure Island, CA.
Length: 6 weeks (168-185 hours).
Exhibit Dates: 4/66 – Present.
Objectives: To Train officers to perform as disaster control officers for shore establishments.
Instruction: Lectures and practical exercises in disaster control procedures, including organization; nuclear, biological and chemical agents and effects; nuclear, biological and chemical warfare defense and accident control; disaster control operation; radiological detection; and decontamination.
Credit Recommendation: no credit because of the military nature of the course (12/68)

NV-0802-0001 ABC DEFENSE FOR SHIPBOARD INSTRUCTORS

Course Number: None
Location: Damage Control Training Center, Treasures Island, CA
Length: 3 Weeks (104 hours).
Exhibit Dates: 1/62-12/68
Objectives: To train enlisted personnel to assist officers in organizing and donducting training programs in shipboard defense.
Instruction: Lectures in instructor training and in nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare defense afloat.
Credit Recommendation: In the vocational certificate category, 1 semester hour in occupational safety (1/74), in the lower division baccalaureate/associate degree category, 1 semester hour in occupational safety (1/74)

NV-0802-0008 ABC WARFARE DEFENSE AFLOAT

Course Number: Not available.
Location: Version 1: Damage Control Training Center, Philadelphia, PA. Version 2: Schools Command, Treasure Island, CA
Length: 5 weeks (123-174 hours).
Exhibit Dates: 12/59-12/68.
Objectives: To train officers in atomic, biological, and chemical warfare defense afloat.
Instruction: Lectures and practical exercises on ABC warfare defense afloat including atomic, biological, and chemical warfare effects on personnel, ships and equipment; methods used to reduce or negate these effects; casualty minimization; requirements of shipboard ABC-damage control; radiological detections; nuclear weapon accidents, protection and decontamination; disaster recovery; shipboard organization, and anti-personnel biological warfare.
Credit Recommendation: No credit because of the specialized nature of the course (12/68).

NV-1715-0545 RADIAC INSTRUMENT MAINTENANCE

Course Number: A-670-0020.
Location: Version 1: Damage Control School, Treasure Island, CA. Version 2: Naval Schools Command, Treasure Island, CA/
Length: Version 1: 5 weeks (82 hours). Version 2: 4 weeks (90 hours).
Exhibit Dates: Version 1: 8/70-Present.
Version 2: 1/66-7/70.
Objectives: To Train enlisted personnel to be radiac technicians.
Instruction: Lectures and practical exercises in operation, maintenance, and repair of radiation related equipment, including dosage hazards, radiological monitoring and decontamination; basic nuclear physics; radiac computer indicator, detector, and calibrator maintenance; radioactive sources leak testing, atomic energy commission license requirements, electronics review; and standard test equipment.
Credit Recommendation: Version 1: In the vocational certificate category, 2 semester hours in radiation equipment maintenance (4/74); in the lower-division baccalaureate/associate degree category, 2 semester hours in radiation equipment maintenance, and credit in physics laboratory on the basis of institutional examination (4/74); in the upper-division baccalaureate category, credit in electrical laboratory on the basis of institutional examination (4/74). Version 2: In the vocational certificate category, 1 semester hour in radiation equipment maintenance (4/74); in the lower-division (redacted) baccalaureate/associated degree category, 1 Semester hour in radiation equipment maintenance, and credit in physics laboratory on the basis of instructional examination (4/74); in the upper-division baccalaureate category, credit in electrical laboratory ON THE BASIS OF INSTITUTIONAL EXAMINATION (4/74).

NV-1728-0012 DAMAGE CONTROLLMEN CLASS A HT-A PHASE 1

Course Number: A-780-0035; A-780-0036.
Location: Damage Control Training Center, Philadelphia, PA; Damage Control Training Center, Treasure Island, CA.
Length: 7-8 weeks (240 hours).
Exhibit Dates: 7/70-Present.
Objectives: To train enlisted personnel in damage control techniques.
Instruction: Lectures and practical exercises in hull and hull system, casualty control, shoring, hull and pipe patching, plastic repairs, firefighting, basic nuclear physics, characteristics of nuclear bursts, classification and detection of biological and chemical agents, shipboard decontamination, use and care of oxygen breathing equipment.
Credit Recommendation: In/the vocational certificate category, 1 semester hour in firefighting, 3 in damage control (5/74); in the lower-division baccalaureate/associate degree category, 1 semester hour in firefighting, 3 in damage control (5/74)

Naval Standards

Apprentice (E-2)

914 NUCLEAR, BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL (NBC) DEFENSE

914201 Use of protective mask in a chamber or environment of riot control agent (CS) or dense smoke
914202 Use of currently issued protective and self-aid equipment and methods of adapting regularly issued clothing and equipment for protection against contamination.
914203 Markers used to indicate that an area in contaminated
914204 Means by which biological operation agents enter the body
914205 Methods of dissemination of agents : (A) aerosols; (B) sabotage
914206 Methods used to decontaminate personnel

914207 Use of atropine
914208 Characteristics and effects of the following: (A) nerve agents; (B) blister agents; (C) blood agents; (D) choking agents; (E) screening agents
914209 Protective measures to be followed in the event of NBC attack
914210 Duties of member of a decontamination team
914211 Duties of member of a monitoring team other than monitor
914212 General procedures to be followed prior to, during, and after attack as set forth in the NBC defense bills

Apprentice (E-3)

914 NUCLEAR, BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL (NBC) DEFENSE

914301 Effects of nuclear radiation (alpha and beta particles, gamma rays and neutrons)
914302 Meanwhile of the following terms as applied to radiological defense: (A) radiac; (B) radiation dose; (C) radiation dose rate; (D) safe stay time; (E) material condition “Circle William”
914303 Differences between radiation and radiological contamination
914304 Purpose and use of the casualty dosimeter in terms of when used, by whom, and for what purpose
914305 Purpose, use of, and how to interpret a self-reading pocket dosimeter

Petty Officer Second Class (E-5)

914 NUCLEAR, BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL (NBC) DEFENSE

914501 Basic organization of teams to decontaminate radioactive areas and areas contaminated by chemical or biological agents.

Radioactive object found near homes at Hunters Point shipyard

Article Link:

Jason Fagone and Cynthia Dizikes Sep. 13, 2018 Updated: Sep. 14, 2018 9:39 a.m. San Francisco Chronicle

Approximate location of the deck marker located just outside the submarine barracks where the workers who cleaned the radiation on ships sent to Hunters Point Shipyard after the nuclear tests in the pacific were cleaned. Ironically the builder ( Lennar) of the New Construction had their onsite headquarters in one of these barracks where the nuclear radiation contaminated workers ate their lunch. I wonder if their workers knew they were headquartered on one of the most nuclear contaminated buildings on the site? Generally they were designed to be a buffer zone between the contaminated portions of the base where workers would shower and change clothes after they spent the day sandblasting the radiation off of the ships. Eventually the Navy gave up on the ships that were the target of the nuclear blasts and sank them off the coast of most of the ports on the west coast of the US.

The USS Indianapolis that was cleaned at Hunters Point and then sunk at what is now the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The Navy stuffed the ship with thousands of barrels of nuclear waste when they sent it to the bottom of the Bay and they also dumped the barrels off the Farallon Islands where unfortunately they are only a few hundred feet in depth well within the range of fishing vessels for the Bay Area.

The Article:
“A highly radioactive object has been discovered at the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard next to a housing area that has been declared safe and free of radioactive contamination for more than a decade, The Chronicle has learned. The finding is the latest problem at San Francisco’s most ambitious redevelopment project in a century — an effort to transform a 500-acre Superfund waste site into a bustling waterfront neighborhood of 12,000 homes.”

“The housing area is known as Parcel A. The California Department of Public Health is scanning it for radioactivity after revelations that employees of the Navy’s main cleanup contractor, Tetra Tech, faked radiation measurements in other parts of the shipyard. Parcel A residents and city officials demanded a test after whistle-blowers and media reports raised the possibility that some of those problems may have extended to Parcel A, where 300 housing units have been completed and an additional 150 are under construction.But the discovery of a radium device is startling because the city and multiple government agencies have said for years that any contamination on Parcel A was cleaned up long ago. The Navy transferred the 75-acre parcel to the city in 2004. The land is now owned by home builder and developer Lennar Corp. Public officials have repeatedly assured residents that no harmful radioactivity exists near their homes and they have nothing to worry about.”

The Navy Nuked Itself in Operation Crossroads Baker Test

Operation Crossroads (1946) was two atomic bomb tests where the second one was exploded under water creating a radioactive steam cloud that spread over all of the ships, including the support ships thus irradiating about 80% of the US Pacific Fleet at the time. The Navy had set up a set of Target Ships including the Saratoga and Independence Aircraft Carriers to see what effect a nuclear explosion would have on the ships. The explosion irradiated the water in the lagoon the equivalent of 5000 tons of radium.

Unfortunately they miscalculated and thus irradiated all of the ships present which had to be cleaned immediately to be put back in action. Thus the ships had to go to US Ports and be cleaned by sandblasting and the Navy decided to dump the contaminated sandblast sands directly into the harbors of the Navy Bases. 145 out of 207 ships were sent to be decontaminated, the others were scuttled. Airplanes were sent to their respective bases to be washed down.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

The Navy entered the Lagoon with the support ships but had to retreat when the radiation levels exceeded the fatal level and the ships ran out, some went out to sea to escape. One hour after the blast the Battleship “New York” had a reading of 1200 r/hr which is 3 times the fatal dose. Here is a video of the scene, showing the support ships wash down the decks of the target ships like it was a carwash, the sailors completely unaware of the danger of a nuclear blast. https://youtu.be/BKH437o14vA

145 out of 207 ships were sent to be decontaminated, the others were scuttled. There were also airplanes that were affected and they had to return to their bases to be decontaminated. The ships were sent to the following ports to be cleaned:

  • Bremerton and Puget Sound
  • Guam/Marianas
  • Hunters Point Shipyard – San Francisco
  • Kwajalein
  • Mare Island
  • New Orleans
  • Norfolk
  • Los Angeles
  • Pearl Harbor
  • San Diego
  • San Pedro
  • Terminal Island
  • The Caroline Islands
  • The Philippines
  • Treasure Island – San Francisco

The ships had to be sandblasted to remove the paint in order to clean the ships. Because the non target ships used their pumps and hoses to clean the other ships or operated inside the lagoon, their water lines, pumps and evaporators (used to produce clean water) were contaminated and in most cases they could clean them with acid which was also dumped directly into these harbors. At the time the Navy was only concerned with the effects of the acids dumped into the harbors and they really didn’t care about dumping radiation into the water where civilians fish. One thing they found out fast was that copper piping tends to hold the radiation directly in the copper and so those systems had to be scrapped and all the copper piping had to be replaced.

In 1989 the EPA put out a report on the cleanup of Mare Island, Alameda Air station and Hunters Point and they state that they used samples that dug in 4 inches deep to determine radiation. They cleared all of these bases for nuclear radiation. Problem is that in order to fool a geiger counter all you need is a few feet of dirt. You can cover it up all you want, the radiation is still there. Also to test for Alpha and Beta Particles you have drill down and bring up a core of the materials which are them chemically separated to isolate the radioactive elements and then determine the radioactivity based on the contents, not a geiger counter.

Here is the official video of the project: https://archive.org/details/MISC1323OperationCrossroads1948
No description at the National Archives. Castle Films produced this film for the U.S. military — “Operation Crossroads” US Army film # MISC-1323 and US Navy film # MN 5345. Description from Armed Forces Films for Public and Television Use: “A documentary of the Able and Baker blasts of the Atomic Bomb Test at Bikini, produced by Joint Army-Navy Task Force One.”
National Archives Identifier: 88210 source file isn’t in the greatest shape.

Video detailing the Nuclear safety at the blast. Notice the officers checking the status of their geiger counters using a radiation source. Similar sources were found buried at San Francisco’s Treasure Island thus causing the site to become an EPA Superfund Nuclear Radiation Site.

Video link and information from Internet Archive. Uploaded by Periscope Films: https://archive.org/details/73862RadiologicalSafety